The Star Spangled Banner has a range of two and a half octaves. At least, that's what the Minnesota Orchestra Blog claims:"Part of the problem, of course, is that The Star-Spangled Banner is really difficult to sing. It spans 2-1/2 octaves, whereas Oh Canada and Take Me Out to the Ballgame require only a single octave's range. If you aren't careful to start on the right note for your particular range, you may find yourself in a world of hurt . . . "
Now I'm not a stickler for details and certainly forgiving if someone makes a mistake. But this is an orchestra blog, and we expect them to get the facts right!
UPDATE: The orchestra corrected the mistake. It's great to see an actual response to a comment.
They also have a problem with elementary school choirs:
The Minnesota Twins, for example, tend to trot a bunch of elementary school "choirs" (should you really be allowed to call it a choir when everyone is singing in unison?) out onto the MetroDome turf to shriek the anthem . . .What the heck, Minnesota Orchestra? How are we going to teach them to sing in parts if we don't start with unison?
They did point me to this, however, the worst rendition ever of the SSB:
3 comments:
I had to send the orchestra an email...
To Whom,
As a conductor myself, I was a bit surprised by Mr. Bergman's comments concerning unison singing. Is unison singing any less valuable an educational tool than part singing? Of course not, it just allows educators to teach different musical concepts. One might argue that fine unison singing can be more difficult than singing in parts. Does unison symphonic or string quartet writing deserve less attention than counterpoint or other polyphony? No. I realize that Mr. Bergman was attempting to be funny, but as an arts organization, you have the responsibility of promoting love of the art. The fact that the Twins get a children's choir to sing the National Anthem is fantastic. If they sound bad, blame the conductor, not the make up of the kids or the fact that the are singing in unison. I was quite surprised by Mr. Bergman's post, and trust he will think twice before posting without thinking of the orchestra's responsibility to be stewards and promoters of the arts, not detractors.
Thank you,
-Mark A. Boyle
Adjunct Professor of Music
DMA Candidate, Choral Conducting
Conductor, University Choir
Okay, calm down. First of all, the 2-1/2 octave thing was a typo, and I fixed it when it was called to my attention by another commenter. Obviously, I know it's 1-1/2 octaves.
Secondly, you may get as indignant as you want about my comment about elementary school choirs at Twins games, but it won't change the fact that the vast majority of the ones the Twins trot out there can't sing the song, and don't appear to have been pre-screened for that particular skill in any way. I'm not saying kids shouldn't sing the national anthem - just that organizations that feature regular performances of it should, perhaps, actually make an attempt to book people who can sing it.
Sam,
I understand the typo. I was merely commenting on your dismissal of unison singing. If you read my post you would have picked up that I was blaming the conductors of these children's choirs. Perhaps you should have placed the clear statements in this post on the MO Blog page.
I fully agree that quality is important and that there needs to be screening, but the responsibility to get a children's choir to sing an in-tune, unison performance of the Anthem rests with the conductor.
And by the way - thanks for the permission to remain indignant - I shall take you up on that offer with regards to your dismissal of unison singing. :)
-MAB
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